construction/carpentry work in coastal Maine?

[ADSLubec]

Funny that people say good luck getting carpentry work. Every time we look for a carpenter to handle stuff at our home in Lubec we seem to get a response that they are too busy and we'll have to wait months to get the job done.

It may be that we are genrally looking for small repairs that some carpenters don't want to be bothered with. Even when when we wanted the house re-sided we had to get someone out of the Bangor area as everyone near us said they were too busy. The gentlemen we got was a former Lubec local so I did not feel too bad about waiting for a current local to have time.

Alan

[Acadianlion]

There is a brisk demand for the small project worker. Most professionals don't want to tangle with the small job because if they are any good at all, they are probably pretty busy with jobs that they want and like to do.

When I was trying to get my daughter's house ready to place on the market in Belfast, I was told by the real estate brokers and the paint store operator that if I wanted to leave cards they would send me a continual number of people who needed a room or two painted, or some porch steps fixed, or a little sheet rock patched so that their houses could be placed on the market.

This is no different than it was when I first moved to Maine and did this sort of work for a living, in 1977. BUT it is tough to do one day or two here, and another day or two there and get paid what is needed to perform well. This small project kind of work costs more to do than a bigger job per hour, yet the money is not usually there to compensate the carpenter/painter/electrician/plumber to make the small project a priority.

[AustinB]

Maine ,maybe national, is having some new laws taking affect soon that will make it even harder for the small jobber to do work. It seems to be something about lead paint and homes built before 1978. The rules require proper containment of dusts/particles, and also any liability is to be borne by the contractor, whether they knew any lead was there or not. Need to be certified, etc.